Decoupaged Side Table & Chair

Greeting cards, get well cards, birthday cards, sympathy cards ... I cannot bear to throw them away because the sentiments, although sometimes just the garden variety that come from the manufacturer, are sincere efforts to keep friendships alive. And often, the illustrations are keepers!

Several years ago when I was going through chemotherapy as a result of breast cancer, cards sent by friends and family helped keep my spirits uplifted. I saved them all.  But a better use than keeping them in a box was to display them for gentle reminders of love.  So I decoupaged them onto a little table where some costume jewelry resides, and those bits and pieces of  get-well cards remind me of valued friendships.

A little Modgepodge and some cutting and pasting were all that was necessary to make this useful little side table an enduring sentimental symbol of friendship.  I use the "get well" table in my bathroom to hold the tools for getting ready for the day.

The cards were cut and pasted onto the table in no particular order.  The randomness of the mementos draws my eye to a different card at each glance onto the surface, reminding me of  the kindness of each friend.

(close up of top of table)

Taking on an old piece of furniture and decoupaging it with special gift wrap or other unique papers is a project which you might like just for its preservation value of sentiment alone.

Here is a link at FaveCrafts that shows how another woman has more methodically decoupaged a chair seat:

And here is that chair again holding some pretty flower pots.  Her theme seems to be flowers, and appears to be a nice touch to her patio.

Summer Squash and Sausage Casserole

With tomatoes, squash and onions all now available, they are the basis of my favorite summer casserole.  This recipe makes plenty, is easily reheated in the microwave, and is definitely in the new triangle of foods that are good for you.  It also has lots of cheesy goodness.

Ingredients: as many and as much as you like of....

1. tomatoes in thick slices
2. yellow and green squashes, any varieties are fine, cut in thick slices
3. onions, yellow or white, cut in pieces
4. a pound of Italian sausage, browned in a skillet with the grease discarded
5. cheese, yellow and grated

Preparation consists of layering all the vegetables, browned sausage and grated cheese a couple of times with lots of pepper, a bit of salt, and maybe some spices you like.  Cover and cook in a 350 degree oven for an hour or until the vegetables are no longer crunchy.

So there you have a complete meal if you add just a slice of bread, a beverage, and a dessert if you are feeling indulgent.

Cornices with Fabric Coverings the Easy Way

After more than a few years, our dining area windows needed a decorative face lift, not to mention a good vacuuming of the blinds.

The husband cut some foam core board that came in a sheet that was 8 feet long and 48 inches wide.  The width of the foam board was one inch; our supplier was the local Home Depot.

After measuring the windows, four lengths of foam core board were required for placement over the windows.  We cut them in 12" x 48" pieces.

Knowing that my two finished oil paintings of birds were ready to hang, I bought coordinating fabric in a teal color, cut the fabric into pieces roughly 16" x 55" in size and pinned the fabric to the foam board backing.

The  original smaller version of those "Angry Birds" was given to our local hospice for a fund raiser, but I painted two more similar ones on gallery wrapped canvases that were 12" x 36".
 
So now there are four cornice boards covered in fabric over each of the four windows in the dining area.  Each is secured to the wall above the windows with a single nail that was driven through the fabric covered foam board cornice.

And then the Angry Birds were hung above the cornices.

Voila! (pictures pan from left to right)

It was an easy way to bring more color into this area by using a tiny flowered teal print fabric under the pictures and covering the cornice boards.  It also gave a more finished look to those windows without obstructing the view of the back yard foliage.